Happy Thanksgiving Dear Readers

Since it’s Thanksgiving, it’s a great time to tell all of you readers thank you. Thanks for turning up every day to read our posts and occasionally comment. AwardsDaily (nee Oscarwatch) has always been about the readers. Thanks for the tweets and emails that you send, the tips and news items, the praise and criticisms – we appreciate it.

To give something back, Ryan and I would like to offer up an Amazon gift card for $100. We went back and forth on what would be a great gift but perhaps the best gift is a choice to get what one lucky commenter would like.

To enter, please leave in the comments which actor, writer or director you are most grateful for.

I’ll go first: I’m grateful for Steven Spielberg. I saw Jaws 14 times in the theater. We would line up for hours to get in, and after it was over we get right back in line to see it again. That was almost thirty years ago. Although most of my favorite Spielberg films happened a long time ago, I am still stunned that after that many decades making movies he could come up with something as thoroughly researched and well executed as Lincoln. There are many films I’m grateful for this year, starting at the beginning with Beasts of the Southern Wild, Middle of Nowhere, Moonrise Kingdom, and on through Cannes with Amour, Rust & Bone, The Hunt and Beyond the Hills, at Telluride with the splendid Argo and The Central Park Five, the third of the Christopher Nolan trilogy, the Dark Knight Rises, and now on through Oscar season with Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi and Lincoln. A dazzling array, an embarrassment of riches. I can’t wait to see the rest of the films this year. I’m grateful that all of these filmmakers are out there taking the biggest risks. What we all do is easy; what they do is hard.

Most importantly, I’d really like to give public thanks to Ryan Adams, who keeps the site running smoothly but whose enthusiasm and voice inspires me daily. He also helps to cultivate such a lively community here in the comments. He spends far too much time in the background so hopefully we’ll soon be seeing more of Ryan’s writing = he’s been such a great friend over the years and one of the smartest people I know. I’d also like to thank Craig Kennedy, who, along with Ryan, now do the weekly Oscar Podcast. Thanks again to Dora for building the FYC gallery.

So thank you readers, thank you. And now, who are your most grateful for?